The present invention, in some embodiments, relates to devices and methods for effectively analyzing shipping traffic for potential contraband including but not limited to explosives, nuclear material, weaponry, biological or chemical agents, terrorists, illegal aliens, slaves, and illegal goods.
With the destruction of the Twin Towers, America began a rapid process of analyzing risks to its citizens, infrastructure, and national way of life. One of the first areas to create national concern was international shipping. Some ships reaching the US can carry over 14,000 standard shipping containers and overall the US receives and sends tens of millions of containers each year. Very few of these containers are actually inspected and the risk for entry of dangerous material such as radiological samples or dangerous individuals such as terrorists remains real.
With the above risks in mind and shipping-based threats high on Homeland Security priorities, technologies have been developed to analyze the millions of containers after reaching US shores. The prior art generally describes methods for scanning containers as they are necessarily transferred between ship and land-based transportation elements. The prior art does not generally discuss sea-based detection and warning systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,808,301 to Murphy, et al. describes a system and method for screening inter-modal shipping containers for the presence of weapons-of-mass-destruction, such as chemical-warfare agents, biological-warfare agents, radiological materials, nuclear material, or explosives.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/052,600 et al. teaches non-intrusive inspection systems, including apparatuses and methods, for non-intrusively inspecting cargo containers employed, generally, in the cargo transportation industry. The non intrusive inspection systems utilize one or more, single or multi-energy electron accelerators arranged in a plurality of different arrangements and orientations to provide two and, essentially, three dimensional views of the contents of (i.e., objects within) a cargo container and to enable discrimination and identification of materials present within the contents thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,239 to Takehara et al. describes a method for non-intrusive scanning of cargo containers quay side while the containers are being transferred between ship and land transportation utilizing a mobile cargo container handling buffer crane having a bridge crane mounted thereon for transferring cargo containers between a ship and land transportation with an intermediate transfer position whereby a suspended container can be non-invasively inspected by a longitudinally reciprocating container traversing radiation emitter apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,551,739 to Morgenstern teaches an invention for monitoring an item, such as a container. The invention includes a computer in communication with a receiver that receives signals from a remote source. A transmitter in communication with the computer receives values from the computer based on the signals received from the remote source. These values are then transmitted to a security device associated with the item, which includes an authentication table comprising a plurality of initial values. The security device then records values transmitted from the transmitter. The values can be jitter values, with each jitter value being a difference in arrival times of at least two timing signals from the same remote source.